


The Arc of Conflict, Fragment s15,1: Two Outlaws Waiting for a Train

by bzarcher, solarbird



Series: Of Gods and Monsters [103]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Bandits & Outlaws, Cowboys & Cowgirls, Deadlock Gang, Deadlock Jesse McCree, Demons, Gen, Gods, Heist, Loss of Trust, Mexican Character, New Mexico, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Western
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:42:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22428790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bzarcher/pseuds/bzarcher, https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarbird/pseuds/solarbird
Summary: Katya Volskaya's government in Russia has destroyed the omnium Koschei, and held their own against the Gods of Oasis. With no point to additional fighting, the overt war has paused. But covertly, the conflict carries on. The gods, after all, still have a plan, and will do what is needed - one way, or another.Jesse McCree walked out on Ashe's Deadlock Gang years ago. If he wants to come back - even for a single job, an important job, anecessaryjob - he's got to a lot of lost trust to rebuild.Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflictis a continuance ofThe Arc of Ascension,The Arc of Creation, andThe Armourer and the Living Weapon. To follow the story as it appears,please subscribe to the series.
Relationships: Elizabeth Caledonia Ashe & Jesse McCree
Series: Of Gods and Monsters [103]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23





	The Arc of Conflict, Fragment s15,1: Two Outlaws Waiting for a Train

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who is back up to speed again, at least for the moment? Welcome back to being on schedule, everyone. Next week's update is already ready. ^_^
> 
> dirtyclaws has launched [a public fan-run _Of Gods and Monsters_ discord server](https://discord.gg/pDZMpVT) and invites everyone to come join it. ^_^

Jesse crouched, looking through the peephole in the wall - a bullet hole in the wall, really - checking for any sign of surveillance. Watching for the watcher, as the rest of the gang finalised their little plan, making changes, reacting to conditions on site.

It was to be a takedown, a gussied up smash and grab. A simple job with an automated cargo train, but they just might have a guard on this one. Didn't happen much, but sometimes it did. It was low risk and medium reward at most, but of such small jobs is the bread and butter of gang life - and payrolls - made.

Ashe had told Jesse to watch out for sniper glass, in particular. He didn't like that. Not that it wasn't good advice - he just didn't like what that might mean.

He also didn't really like being back in this business, not even as a necessary means to an end, operating undercover. Yeah, he'd been an outlaw. Yeah, he'd never entirely stopped being one, either. But this was a little too close to his old life, before Overwatch, before Blackwatch, before Gabe. Even if there was a reason - a damned good reason as far as he was concerned - he still didn't like it.

But he had a lot of trust to earn back with Deadlock if he was going to be able to leverage them like he hoped to do, and if this was how he had to do it, this was how he had to do it. He'd always been a practical man.

Mata slid into the small room's doorway, checking up on him, all black hair and black shirt under black hat and dark, dark leather, practical, durable, hardened all the way through. He glanced over, meeting her grey eyes for just a moment, nodding.

Mata - he didn't know her first name, she didn't seem to want to give it - didn't "walk in" anywhere, really, or it seemed to him. She slithered in, quietly, like a diamondback on the prowl, and he kind of liked her for that - straight up dangerous, and no pretending otherwise. He gave her a little "all clear" hand signal, and she nodded back, making her way along the wall, avoiding the holes that might let her be seen from the outside.

"Spot anything?" she asked in quiet Spanish, settling down beside him at the lookout spot.

"Nope," he replied in the same tones and language. "Just the local wildlife, such as it is. Not much has changed since last time I was here, has it?"

She shrugged, taking a look outside herself as the sun edged downward towards the top of the mesa's ridge, seeing no more than he had.

"We're about ready to move out," she said. "Probably ten minutes."

"Good," he replied, "Never did like standin' around."

"Me neither," she agreed. "Makes me nervous." She absent-mindedly reached up to the small, heart-shaped votive she wore as jewellery around her neck, blue, covered in little metal icons, pigs in silver, and eyes in gold. "I always get nervous before jobs. Even little ones."

"Y'don't show it," he said, looking at the votive on its golden chain. Something about it put him a little on edge. "What's the _milagro?_ "

"Huh?" she said, realising she'd been rubbing the diadem between her fingers. "Oh. Just, y'know. Protection. Doesn't hurt anything. Might help."

"Naw," he agreed, "I get that. Just haven't seen 'em much in blue."

She shrugged. "Some bad shit went down in the south a few years ago. People talk about demons, now. It's supposed to protect against 'em."

"Is it."

"Yeah."

She tucked her pendant back into her shirt, and gave him a mean look.

"You got a problem with that, cowboy?"

"Not at all," he said, shaking his head, making the connection he didn't want to make.

"Hell, I'm thinkin' - maybe I should get one myself."

**Author's Note:**

> This is the thirty-second instalment of _Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflict_. To follow the story, [subscribe to the series via this link](https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024), rather than to the individual works.


End file.
